Two league wins give top there finish hopes

13 January  V  Lenzie  Glasgow International

Men V Lenzie

Both Dundee sides headed west to Lenzie to resume their quest for a top three finish in their National Volleyball League Division 1.  The men opened up against a stuffy home side keen to maintain their third spot in the table.  An opening run of points for the home side, including seven errors from the Dundee side, gave the advantage to Lenzie.  Another two double error runs proved expensive as the home side held on to win the set 25/21.  Jamie Salvin came into the line up and a change of emphasis paid dividends as the visitors took a 10/8 lead with Mike Coward and Louis Groshenry both scoring several points.  A run of 5 points from Barry Millar’s service gave Dundee a 17/9 lead and despite a wobble with several more errors, Dundee levelled the match winning the set 25/18.

The game was beginning to become scrappy and this caused problems for the visitors as awkward and disruptive play by the Lenzie attack started to score more frequently.  Mark Donnachie stood up to the Lenzie attack and helped launch counter attacks allowing Coward, Salvin and Kevin Chisholm to keep the visitors ahead.  They pulled ahead at the final points to take the set 25/23.  The home side were now tiring and relying on errors from the Dundee attack.  Oz Dowie and Colin McEvoy finally started to control the net with blocks and hits and Dundee had the ‘finishing line’ in sight, leading 18/11.  The home side had strength from the service line and three runs of three points closed the gap to 21/20 for the visitors.  The sides traded points and finally a service error gave the Dundee side the much-needed 3/1 victory with a 25/23 win to draw level on points with the Lenzie side.

Ladies V Lenzie

The Dundee girls were up next against Glasgow International and were out to return to winning ways after two defeats in their last games before the Christmas break.  Sarah Driscoll opened the scoring with a sharp hit from the left side of the court.  The result was a run of another 10 points without reply from Lucy Wishart.  She scored five service aces and Driscoll hit four winners for an 11/0 lead.   The lead became 17/3 but a series of hitting mistakes gave the home side 10 points before the set was won 25/10.  The second set followed a similar with Dundee leading 9/6 before the GI side scored their first winning point with a counter attack.  It made little difference as Natasha Melville and Sarah Driscoll piled on the points to win the set 25/14.

The third set started with Driscoll and Hannah Lawrie racking up another run of points and when Lana Edgar hit a scoring hit they had an 11/3 lead.  The Glasgow side then scored their second point with a service point but it was too late as Dundee had a 20/8 lead.  Lana Edgar and Sarah Driscoll finished off the set to win 25/14 to hoist them into third spot in the league.  The impressive scoring performance was dented by giving away too many points with serving and hitting errors, with GI only scoring three of their own points!